Looking to God for the Help You Need
Have you ever experienced something like this? You make choices in your life that seem to advance your own cause. You trust in what you have done, in your plans, in your cleverness, in your own hard work. For a while all seems well, but then the results of your actions begin to crash upon you like waves during a storm. As you are battered, you realize the folly of your ways. Then, and only then, do you turn your eyes to God, looking for help to the only one who can save you. Is this story at all familiar to you?
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Are You a Leader Who is Quick to Set Things Right?
Wouldn’t you like to work for an organization with a leader who is “quick to set things right”? Don’t you wish for political leaders who “speed the cause of righteousness”?
And don’t you want to be such a leader in places where you have been given authority? I know I do. I want to be eager to do the right thing, knowing that my good works honor God. I want to do what’s right quickly, even when part of me resists.
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How is Moab Relevant to Me?
Do you ever read a passage of Scripture and wonder, “How in the world is this relevant for me?” It might be an obscure law in Leviticus or the counting of the Israelites in numbers. Or it could be Isaiah 15, which reveals the coming judgment of Moab. Is there anything here for us today?
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Are We to Be Like God?
Are we supposed to be like God? This question can’t be answered with a simple yes or no, because the answer is yes and no, yes, in some ways, no, in other ways.
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Punishment and Promise
We don’t talk much about God’s punishment today. For those of us who are so rightly focused on the grace of God, it’s easy to forget God’s justice. The Lord does not dismiss evil as no big deal, however common a dismissal is in our time of history. Rather, God hates evil. He judges it and punishes it.
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Drawing from the Wells of Salvation
When we take our first big drink of the water of salvation, we haven’t exhausted God’s supply. Rather, we are invited to continue to “draw water from the wells of salvation,” as God’s grace touches and transforms every part of life.
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The Earth Will Be Filled With the Best Thing of All
If you were to be asked, “What is the world full of today?” what might you say? Perhaps, “The world is full of activity” or “The world is full of adventure” or “The world is full of suffering” or “The world is full of danger.” As you think about this world, what would be the very best thing to fill the whole earth?
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Leading From Beneath the Surface
As I reflect on this passage from Isaiah, it moves me to honor Jesus Christ as God’s unique ruler. But it also stirs in me a desire to become more like Jesus in my own leadership. I want to be one whose judgment goes beneath the surface. I want to see more than what is apparent to my eyes, to hear more than I can hear with my ears. I want to exercise leadership based on God’s righteousness, God’s right order for all relationships. I want to make decisions according to God’s justice.
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Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
I’ll confess that sometimes I can be like the king of Assyria. I can let my pride in my accomplishments overwhelm my gratitude to God for working in me. I can think and act as if I am doing great things, rather than realizing that whatever I might accomplish is only by God’s grace and power.
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Honoring the God of Justice
Gracious God, you are indeed a lover of justice. This passage from Isaiah reminds us of just how much you care about justice, especially for those who can’t secure it for themselves. Help us, dear Lord, to share your passion for justice and to seek justice in our lives. Guide us in our personal relationships, in our professional responsibilities, and in the exercise of our citizenship, so that we might reflect your justice in how we live.
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What Do You Need From Christ Today?
I wonder how I need to know Christ today. I also wonder how you need to know him. Do you need him to be a wonderful and wise counselor, one who can guide you in your work, your family, and every other context of life? Or do you need Christ to be mighty, to be a source of strength and healing in your life? Perhaps you need him to be like a faithful father, whose love for you is forever firm? Or do you need Christ to grant you his peace to your troubled heart, or to your family, or to your workplace?
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Put God First
In a world of competing loyalties, we often feel torn. Who gets our primary commitment? Our company? Our country? Our political party? Our church? Our family? Isaiah reminds us to put God first above all. When we do, the rest of life will fall into its rightful place.
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Immanuel
Through Matthew, we know that Jesus is Immanuel, not in that this was his given name, but in that he, more than any other sign, demonstrates God’s presence with us (see Matt 1:23). This presence continues after Jesus’s ascension to heaven through the gift of the Spirit.
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How Will You Respond to the God Who Has Sent You?
When God considers your co-workers, your neighbors, your family, your fellow students, your friends at the gym, your brothers and sisters at church, the homeless who hang out downtown, and the other people in your life, he asks: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” How will you respond to this question?
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Be a Person of the Truth
In Isaiah’s day, the people of Israel, especially her leaders and teachers, had forsaken the truth. They justified their own injustice in ways that turned truth on its head – calling evil, good; dark, light; and bitter, sweet.
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